iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Yet another person has died in Trump's concentration camps, a Mexican national named Felix Alcorta-Rodriguez. He was 63. Guards found him unresponsive at CoreCivic's Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, Texas. There's no official cause of death listed.

ice.gov

Criminal illegal alien from Mexico passes away in ICE custody

Felix Alcorta-Rodriguez, a 63-year-old criminal illegal alien from Mexico, passed away in ICE custody June 19.

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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Who’s involved in Thiel’s secret society? Jon Haidt, Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, Cory Booker…

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The Baffler @thebaffler.com · 14/06/2026

All things come to an end. Friends move, pets die; your class ring slips off, your dad stops saying “I love you.” Short fiction from @patrickcottrell.bsky.social tells the stories of four mammals dealing with such inevitability:

thebaffler.com

Four Mammals | Patrick Cottrell

You see, our house is cold and empty now, and each night so willingly we walk into it.

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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

In my newsletter I delight in two new books that feature three women finding each other and having adventures. I also vent about AI once more, and how ugly AI-generated art is. www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...

themarisreview.com

The Maris Review, vol 108

This week's theme is mighty triumvirates and/or friend throuples What I read this week My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction by Deborah Levy No one does it like Deborah Levy on a sentenc...

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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Ted Chiang on AI: www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2...

Being open to the possibility that LLMs are conscious is the same as being open to the possibility that Microsoft Word is conscious, or, more precisely, that multiple distinct consciousnesses are dormant in every Word document containing a conversational transcript, and that they are awakened every time the document is loaded. Should you consider the possibility that every time you open a Word document you are bringing multiple conscious interlocutors into existence, and every time you close one you snuff their existence out? No. Contemplating that scenario is not a good use of your time. Even if the Microsoft Office team employed a philosopher who said you shouldn’t be so certain, because consciousness is not well understood, that would not be sufficient reason for you to take this idea seriously. We don’t need to fully understand the nature of consciousness to definitively say that certain things are not conscious, and conversational transcripts fall in that category.

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Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

LFG!! If anybody is going to guide us through the dark times and the darker ones, it's obviously @emilyhughes.bsky.social — this project is near and dear to my heart for a host of reasons and I hope you'll all subscribe, like I just did!!

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Kristen Martin @kwistent.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The South Korean gov't has recently begun to investigate its role in fraudulent adoptions. For @thebaffler.com, I reviewed a new book about how a messianic quest to “save” Korean children created the intercountry adoption industry and is bound up with a familicide: thebaffler.com/latest/god-s...

thebaffler.com

God Save the Children | Kristen Martin

Harry and Bertha Holt were called by God to “save” multiracial Korean children—many of whom did not need saving.

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Read the story.

The most sickening sequence in What They Stole depicts the early days of HAP in 1956. World Vision, ISS, and state child welfare departments had pleaded with the Holts to reconsider uprooting Korean children, impressing on them the importance of keeping families together and supporting preexisting though deeply underfunded social welfare organizations in Korea. Harry Holt saw these groups as bureaucracies conspiring against his holy plan. In May 1956, ignoring basic child welfare advice, Harry forged ahead to establish HAP’s first independent childcare center in Korea on a plot of land donated by a Church of Christ missionary. “The property consisted of a ‘30-foot-shack,’ as well as a rusty, hollowed-out van parked in a clearing,” Towers writes. Though Harry had donated to World Vision the year prior to build a Reception Center for Mixed-Race Children in Seoul staffed by a medical team, he came to believe that “money should be spent on airfare . . . not housing and medical care,” as Towers writes.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I've spent the last 8 years of my professional book critic career focusing my efforts on YA books by and about queer/trans and BIPOC experiences, and I have also noticed the decrease in these stories being published. It's incredibly dispiriting, as a queer Black adult and as a high school librarian.

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Who Even Reads @whoevenreads.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

For your early weekend reading, check out Elisabeth's review of @patrickcottrell.bsky.social's fantastic novel Afternoon Hours of a Hermit!! You know it's important because we used two exclamation marks!! Do it‼️🍎 #booksky www.whoevenreads.com/a-double-exc...

whoevenreads.com

Review: Afternoon Hours of a Hermit by Patrick Cottrell | Who Even Reads

The other reviews and accounts of this novel I read before reading the book itself, which rightly suggested a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the proceedings, did nothing to prepare me for the sever...

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Wyatt Bonikowski @wbonikowski.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Patrick Cottrell’s Afternoon Hours of a Hermit is compelling from beginning to end, so funny and weird and terribly sad and really just wonderful work. I want to read it again because there’s so much to think about, but first I want to go back and read his first novel, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace.

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Dorothy, a publishing project @dorothyproject.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

ARCs are in for our two Fall titles, both slender novels, both brilliant: Denise Rose Hansen's BLUE SUNSET and Brais Lamela's WHAT REMAINS (trans. by Jacob Rogers)! Out on October 6, 2026!

Front covers of the Advanced Review Copies for Denise Rose Hansen's BLUE SUNSET on the left and Brais Lamela's WHAT REMAINS (translated by Jacob Rogers) on the right.

Spines for the ARCs on a windowsill beside a tabby cat who, mostly out of frame, is staring out the window.

Back cover of the ARC for Denise Rose Hansen's BLUE SUNSET with blurbs from Camilla Grudova, Amina Cain, and Anne Serre.

Back cover of the ARC for WHAT REMAINS with blurbs from Garth Greenwell, Idra Novey, Daniela Saldana Paris, and Manuel Rivas.

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

"Much of my book Afternoon Hours of a Hermit concerns memory and the techniques of fiction which I have tried to pass onto my students." Patrick Cottrell shared a playlist for his novel Afternoon Hours of a Hermit at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/13/p...

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Kailee Pedersen @kaileepedersen.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I wanted to start AANHPI Heritage Month by sharing the works of some fellow AAPI adoptee authors. Our literature, like our identities as adoptees, is complex, vibrant, and rich with possibility. Consider reading an AAPI adoptee author today. 💖🥚

AAPI Adoptee Books

The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka, Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses, Woman of Interest by Tracy O'Neill, Heart Eater by Sun Yung Shin, Paper Pavilion by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, Scar and Flower by Lee Herrick, Monstrous by Sarah Myers, I Would Meet You Anywhere by Susan Kiyo Ito, You'll Never Believe Me by Kari Ferrell, First Love Language by Stefany Valentine, How to Bury the Dead by Ansley Moon

AAPI Adoptee Books

Adoption Fantasies by Kimberly D. McKee, The Violence of Love by Kit W. Myers, Cleave by Tiana Nobile, Reprieve by James Han Mattson, Season of Dares by Leah Silveius, Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patrick Cottrell, Saying Your Name Three Times Underwater by Sam Roxas-Chua, Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens, Before We Remember We Dream by Bryan Thao Worra, Hour of the Ox by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller by Meredith Ireland

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And Other Stories @andotherstories.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Introducing AFTERNOON HOURS OF A HERMIT, the much-anticipated second novel from Patrick Cottrell, publishing in the UK and Europe on 22 September 2026. ‘a novel of genius’ @aminamemorycain.bsky.social Preorder now: uk.bookshop.org/a/1044/97819...

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Patrick Cottrell @patrickcottrell.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

so thankful for this long and searching review about my new book afternoon hours of a hermit by deb olin unferth for bookforum www.bookforum.com/print/3204/s...

bookforum.com

Sleuth or Dare

Patrick Cottrell’s new novel reopens the investigation – Deb Olin Unferth

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Electric Literature @electricliterature.com · 23/04/2026

Evander James Reyes interviews Patrick Cottrell about his new novel, "The Afternoon Hours of a Hermit." They talk about Milwaukee as noir, metafictional doubling, frustration as the mechanics of plot, and more! buff.ly/1VoMLhX

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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Whoever called the faction of the press who still want to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner the ‘Access of Evil’ I salute you

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Amina Memory @aminamemorycain.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Happy pub day to @patrickcottrell.bsky.social & his genius novel Afternoon Hours of a Hermit, out w/ @eccobooks.bsky.social. A book that looks deep into the void & is also funny, about the unknown, (mis)perception, dead names & the dead, writing, investigation & the history of the novel itself.

A book cover with an apple on it that is also a fingerprint.

A page from a book with a photo of a young boy looking through a magnifying glass.

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The Paris Review @parisreview.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

“ ‘Curtis is definitely a murderer,’ he said. ‘No question about it.’ ” From “Curtis” by Patrick Cottrell in our new Spring issue.

buff.ly

Curtis by Patrick Cottrell

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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I reviewed Lio Min’s debut Beating Heart Baby, a queer YA romance set in perhaps the most intense high school marching band in Los Angeles.

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Mattilda B Sycamore @mbsycamore.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Here I am laughing in joy during the beautiful book launch for TERRY DACTYL at the Seattle Art Museum, thank you all!!!! And, get ready for my upcoming events in New York, DC, Baltimore, and Portland, please spread the word, and let's continue this magic 💕💕💕

Purple lighting as Mattilda laughs with her head back behind the lectern, address made of so many layers of fabric, pink, and blue polka dots, ruffles and knots. Photo by Oscar

MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE ON TOUR WITH TERRY DACTYL

10/25 SEATTLE ART MUSEUM BOOKS SOLD BY ELLIOTT BAY BOOK CO.

11/19 THE STRAND NEW YORK, NY WITH ALEXANDER CHEE

12/1 POLITICS & PROSE WASHINGTON, D.C. WITH JENNIFER NATALYA FINK

12/3 GREEDY READS Remington BALTIMORE, MD WITH JEANNIE VANASCO

1/13 POWELL'S BOOKS on Hawthorne PORTLAND, OR WITH LENI ZUMAS

MASKS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

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Dorothy, a publishing project @dorothyproject.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Amazing review of THE ENDLESS WEEK in The Washington Post today! "It’s rare to encounter a book as feral and lovely as THE ENDLESS WEEK, one equally fluent in the comedy and the horror of the world — and the word." www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

washingtonpost.com

Review | ‘The Endless Week’ is an unusually feral and lovely novel

In Laura Vazquez’s deeply strange book, a chronically online teenage poet goes on a quest to find his mother.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 10/10/2025

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact “And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Couldn’t be happier that the Nobel has gone to Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Back in 2012 I tried to astroturf a movement claiming him as the Next Big Thjng but it didn’t take off because he’s too difficult www.theguardian.com/books/2012/j...

theguardian.com

Why is New York's literary crowd suddenly in thrall to Hungarian fiction? | Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru: The highly educated aspiring writers of New York are looking beyond the English-speaking world for their reading fixes. It must be a sign of the times

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Mattilda B Sycamore @mbsycamore.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Honey, look, it's a gorgeous final copy of TERRY DACTYL, out on November 11 from @coffeehousepress.bsky.social🎉🎉🎉 Book launch on Saturday, October 25, 3 pm at the Seattle Art Museum, and you can preorder signed copies from Elliott Bay Book Company, or preorder from your favorite indie, get ready 💎⚡✨

Bright magenta cover with black border. Floating open mouths in magenta, with tongues out and teeth visible, TERRY DACTYL TERRY DACTYL TERRY DACTYL in one of the mouths. Floating iridescent sparkling glitter pills in spot gloss like jewels. Title at top of black border, author name at bottom, on the side a blurb from Sarah Schulman, "The historical novel on acid"

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Dorothy, a publishing project @dorothyproject.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Check out this excerpt from THE ENDLESS WEEK by Laura Vazquez, translated by Alex Niemi, in the new @harpers.bsky.social Readings section! Book pubs next week! 9/30! harpers.org/archive/2025...

harpers.org

Birthing Channel, by Laura Vazquez

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Necessary Fiction @necessaryfiction.com · 21/07/2025

PORTHOLE by Joanna Howard (@mcsweeneys.net). Reviewed by Martin Horn. necessaryfiction.com/reviews/port...

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Patrick Cottrell @patrickcottrell.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

rachel cusk describes a man eating a huge amount of ice cream

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

This continues to be the biggest story in the country: DOGE has already squandered half a trillion dollars in 6 weeks. Not billion. half a trillion, $500 billion talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/irs-p...

talkingpointsmemo.com

IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA

The Post reports today that the IRS’ internal projections estimate that the...

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Tonight an unbelievable **34,000 people** gathered for our Denver rally to take on billionaires and win our country back. This was the largest political gathering in Denver since Obama in 2008. Also bigger than the 2024 DNC. And the largest ever rally in Bernie’s career (and obviously, mine too).

AOC and Bernie in front of the rally crowd in Denver

Zoomed out crowd shot of 34,000 people in downtown Denver with Colorado mountains in the background

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights. He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.

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Katherine Packert Burke @katpburke.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

so excited to announce that my second novel, ALL US SAINTS, is out next year from Bloomsbury ✨ it's about family, art, and the way a closeted trans girl's act of desperation is permanently warped in the cis imagination

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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 01/02/2025

NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Here are the options on the table (which are not mutually exclusive): 1. House Dems bring articles of impeachment* 2. Senate Dems play constitutional hardball and obstruct everything 3. State AGs litigate (and prosecute) everything they can 4. Citizens march en mass

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El Norte Recuerda @elnorterecuerda.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I don’t think we understand: Elon Musk is the most powerful man in the world, by far. Not just because of his money. But because of his access and control of all data at every possible point. He locked government officials out of their computers yesterday. Now this:

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William C. @williamcson.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Once someone starts talking about what “can’t happen” in the USA because of checks and balances, it’s best to stop listening to them.

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Alina Stefanescu @alinaetc.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Dear humans, Just wanted to share something I've been quiet about, in the year of my loud self-doubt, with gratitude to @sarabandebooks.bsky.social and to many others whom I look forward to thanking in the coming months, MY HERESIES, forthcoming in April 2025.🖤 www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p...

sarabandebooks.org

My Heresies, Alina Stefanescu — SARABANDE BOOKS

Pre-order only. Available April 2025. Behold My Heresies : the latest and highly anticipated poetry collection from Alina Stefanescu. Riven by the tension between hagiographies, utopias, b...

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